I know this is a gambling site so please tell me if this is too off topic, but I find this fascinating. I think it is relevant to the sports betting culture more than most.

Basically every email/forum post/phone text etc is stored in some system somewhere. The idea would be that if you as a person, come across as being suspicious to the NSA/CIA, they can go back and look at your complete electronic footprint. That means the history of all your messaging across various sites.

The guy who released the documents that have made this public is Edward Snowden. He gives an interview here. washingtonpost link So he is in Hong Kong and waiting to be extradited. Samo's Bradley Manning avatar made me think to post this here.

What do you guys think? Personally I've pretty much assumed this stuff has been going on for a long time. I once had a job for an international computer company and the old timers would mention these far out specs the 'spooks' wanted. Basically the spooks wanted to tap every phonecall being made. That was 15 years ago. I've assumed for quite some time everything is recorded or at least a significant portion of internet traffic. I find it highly creepy that some random guy can sit there and look at whatever my favorite flavor of porn is, who my friends are, and what our interests are. This system could record the "ping" data from cell towers and basically know your location history and keep a record of it for eternity.

Anyone give a shit? Is it worth the trade off for security? My issue is that it will eventually be abused. I also doubt the security we derive from it is worth the expense, but we can't even know the expense since the budget is top secret.

Anyway, go to the washington post article and watch the whistleblower's interview. The guy has some balls for sure. There is no way there will be enough American outrage to protect him.

Hong Kong (CNN) -- The man behind of one of the biggest leaks in the history of U.S. intelligence is a former technical assistant for the CIA who is now holed up in a Hong Kong hotel, in danger of running out of money and hoping to find asylum somewhere in the world.

Anyone give a shit? Is it worth the trade off for security? My issue is that it will eventually be abused. I also doubt the security we derive from it is worth the expense, but we can't even know the expense since the budget is top secret.

You already see Snowden slammed as a traitor or his abilities questioned because he didn't finish HS. (LOL @ what you learn in HS anyway) Some oped pieces say otherwise and laud him, but they seem to be in the minority. The NSA chief was caught lying 3 months ago to congress. You can pretty much assume the NSA doesn't care about who they spy on and you can never trust what they claim they're doing.

The problem isn't so much now, it is down the road. We do not have the capacity to understand what factions that may form decades from now. NSA claims to just be storing meta-data currently and Snowden didn't really claim otherwise. How long would that last though ?

Would we know if it changes? We won't.

Is meta-data considered the header to every html request? If it isn't, it will be. That has an AWFUL lot of intel in it. Preventing a few guys setting off bombs can't really justify the monetary price of this stuff.

These guys didn't stop that little Boston bomb that killed like 3 people. Why would we think they'd stop something signficantly more sophisticated? Yet they're getting a budget so big taxpayers can't even be told. That money would be much better tightening down defense computers so the Chinese etc can't steal all our secrets.

You already see Snowden slammed as a traitor or his abilities questioned because he didn't finish HS. (LOL @ what you learn in HS anyway) Some oped pieces say otherwise and laud him, but they seem to be in the minority. The NSA chief was caught lying 3 months ago to congress. You can pretty much assume the NSA doesn't care about who they spy on and you can never trust what they claim they're doing.

The problem isn't so much now, it is down the road. We do not have the capacity to understand what factions that may form decades from now. NSA claims to just be storing meta-data currently and Snowden didn't really claim otherwise. How long would that last though ?

Would we know if it changes? We won't.

Is meta-data considered the header to every html request? If it isn't, it will be. That has an AWFUL lot of intel in it. Preventing a few guys setting off bombs can't really justify the monetary price of this stuff.

These guys didn't stop that little Boston bomb that killed like 3 people. Why would we think they'd stop something signficantly more sophisticated? Yet they're getting a budget so big taxpayers can't even be told. That money would be much better tightening down defense computers so the Chinese etc can't steal all our secrets.

Ok I'll stop rambling.
I'm sure I'm on a list or 2.

With Monsanto running the FDA, Lockheed, Northrup-Grummond et al running the DoD, Pfizer and friends getting their pills approved, I think ultimately this information is destined for consumer control. I haven't been very impressed with Obama but I think the President and Cabinet are becoming increasingly irrelevant. We "vote" every 4 years as this proves beyond doubt we are living in the land of the free (and as a corollary that all the bad guys hate us because of our freedoms), but all that really happens is a slight shifting in the line-ups of bought off federal committees.